Sermons & Homilies
We celebrate today the Synaxis of the Honorable Heavenly Bodiless Hosts. While each of their nine ranks has its own appointed tasks and role in the celestial realm, for us human beings they typically play one role in particular, which is reflected in the name commonly given by us to all of them alike: angels, from the Greek angelos meaning “messenger.”
Continue reading
Today’s Gospel shows us that not all faith is the same faith. Some have little faith, weak faith, easily shaken by outward setbacks and adversities; others have strong faith, great faith, faith that can move mountains, faith that soon obtains all its requests from God. No sooner had the Lord returned over the sea of Galilee to Bethsaida, than the ruler of the local synagogue, Jairus, approached him, and asked him to come and lay hands on his dying daughter, so that she might be healed. He indeed showed faith, but as we know, his faith was not perfect.
Continue reading
Let’s ask ourselves how this can be: how are Moses and the Prophets more apt to impart the wisdom of God and true repentance into the souls of men than one risen from the dead?
Continue reading
Today, it is not just the household of a soldier that witnesses the power of Christ’s word, but many of his disciples … and much people who followed him, along with much people of the city who were taking part in the funeral procession of a widow’s only son. The Lord met this sorry spectacle as he was entering the city; and when he saw the grieving widow, he had compassion on her. The impassible Lord is moved to compassion, in the fulness of his humanity; and indeed, what human heart could fail to be wrenched at the sight of a woman, bereft first of her husband, now deprived of her only son, and leading his pale, stone-still body to burial? Her plight was desperate, and her grief inconsolable.
What is evident in these events is that not by everyone, and not at all times is the closeness of the saints evident. Many do not perceive their nearness to us, their assistance, their concern for humanity, the purpose of which is to strengthen and assist us through various means, not the least being through prayer and by interceding with God for us. Nor is this always apparent as we read the lives of the saints as much as it is today on this feast. For today, victory was due to the intercessions of the Mother of God, who was supplicated by the faithful, the Emperor, and the Patriarch; witnessed by St. Andrew, and attested to by the civilians of the capital city who saw the invaders fleeing.
Continue reading
